All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.

every human activity, whether it be love, philosophy, art, or revolution, is carried on with a special intensity in Paris.

Birds sat on the telegraph wires that spanned the river as the black notes sit on a staff of music.

Unhappy people are dangerous.

Getting a divorce is nearly always as cheerful and useful an occupation as breaking valuable china.

Anthologies are mischievous things. Some years ago there was a rage for chemically predigested food, which was only suppressed when doctors pointed out that since human beings had been given teeth and digestive organs they had to be used or they degenerated very rapidly. Anthologies are predigested food for the brain.

There is nothing rarer than a man who can be trusted never to throw away happiness, however eagerly he sometimes grasps it. In history we are as frequently interested in our own doom.